This invention relates to an apparatus for erecting and positioning lightweight cargo carrying sleeves.
Gearin et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,916 discloses a lightweight sleeve that facilitates placement of cargo into a standard cargo container of the type that is transported in ships, rail cars and trailers. Copending application Ser. No. 07/297,061, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,407 discloses a loading apparatus for rapidly loading and unloading cargo into such a sleeve.
These sleeves are collapsible, which allow several of them to be placed in a single container when it is necessary to return them empty. However, the sleeves are quite large so that pulling collapsed sleeves out of the cargo container, opening them to their expanded configuration and placing them on the loading apparatus is difficult and can slow down the entire loading operation. Similarly, after the sleeves are emptied, they must be removed from the loading apparatus, collapsed, and placed into a cargo container which requires the same effort.
The subject invention overcomes the foregoing difficulty by providing an apparatus which removes a group of collapsed sleeves from a cargo container as a unit and places them on a storage bed. The apparatus then lifts the sleeves from the storage bed one at a time, expands them and places them in the proper orientation on the loading apparatus. The apparatus reverses this sequence with sleeves that have just been emptied.
The sleeves are supported individually on the storage bed in an upright position with their sidewalls vertical, thereby permitting one of the sleeves to be removed without disturbing the rest of the sleeves in the group. In a preferred embodiment this is accomplished by providing a plurality of fingers which are placed alongside of the sleeves' sidewalls. The fingers at one end of the sleeves are carried on a gate which is attached to a movable sled. The sled can be coupled to a group of sleeves in the cargo container and pull the group onto the bed. The fingers are slidably mounted on a gate attached to the sled so that they can be retracted out of engagement with the sleeve when the sled is being used to pull the sleeves out of the container. The fingers at the other end of the sleeves are mounted on pivotal gates which can be raised to permit the group of sleeves to be pulled onto the bed. These fingers are also slidably mounted in order to allow the gate to be lowered after the sleeves have been pulled past it.
An overhead crane is used to lift the collapsed sleeves off of the storage bed, expand them and place them on the loading apparatus. A carriage associated with the crane can be raised and lowered and moved transversely across the storage bed and the loading apparatus. The carriage has hooks slidably mounted on it. The hooks are arranged in pairs which move relative to one another, with one pair of hooks being located over each end of the sleeves. When the hooks are brought together they can be inserted between the sidewalls of a collapsed sleeve. When the hooks are then separated from one another they engage the sidewalls.
After the hooks have engaged the sidewalls of a sleeve, the carriage is raised to lift the sleeve off of the storage bed. The raised sleeve is moved over the loading apparatus, and the hooks are separated from one another to open the sleeve to its expanded position. The carriage is then lowered to place the expanded sleeve on the loading apparatus, and the hooks are moved together to disengage them from the sleeve sidewalls.
The sleeves are removed from the loading apparatus, collapsed, and placed on the storage bed by reversing the aforesaid procedure.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will remove lightweight cargo carrying sleeves one at a time from a group of collapsed sleeves located on a storage bed, open the removed sleeves and place them on a loading apparatus.
It is a further object to provide such an apparatus which will remove an empty sleeve from the loading apparatus, collapse it and place it into a group of sleeves on the storage bed.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which will pull a group of collapsed sleeves from a cargo container as a unit and place it on the storage bed.
It is a still further object of the subject invention to provide such an apparatus which will push a group of collapsed sleeves off of the storage bed as a unit and place it into a cargo container.
It is a still further object of the subject invention to provide such an apparatus in which each sleeve in a group of sleeves is individually supported on the storage bed in an upright position.
The foregoing and other objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.